Gambling, Gods and LSD (2002)

Why we picked it

  Directed by Peter Mettler | Canada | 180 min From an airport mega-church where a pastor performs flamboyant feats of faith-healing to poncho-clad crowds gathering to witness the implosion of a Vegas hotel; from recovering Swiss addicts reviewing their lives’ winding paths to spontaneous sacred encounters with strangers in India; Swiss-Canadian nonfiction auteur Peter Mettler’s most emblematic work is a rigorously associative travelogue, traversing diverse continents and landscapes, spiritual convictions and psychological states. Transcendence is the core theme, prepared improvisation the modus operandi. Whether flying solo or accompanied by a skeleton crew, Mettler’s capacity to be fully present, his gentle approach to interlocution, and his uncanny antenna for eccentricity draw in a stream of fascinating characters ready to articulate their longing for the infinitely varied sublime. A film of arrivals and departures, this Genie-winning, intuition-fuelled